Trials and Tribulations
by Kaiva Lukain
Summary: ShizuruxNatsuki It all starts with one look...up Natsuki's skirt?
1. Trial number 1

"Why don't you just leave Haruka-san," Shizuru said without looking up from the paperwork she was filling out. It was ridiculous how much useless paperwork there was for the President and even the Vice President to complete. The monotony was enough to drive the calm Shizuru insane, she certainly didn't wish it on someone as impatient as Haruka, most likely the blond was going stir crazy.

"Really?!" The outburst made Shizuru smile; it was predictable, and she needed that right now. She wanted everyone to act normal, even with the fact of the carnival, though she knew it was a lot to hope. "I can go? Yukino is wasting for me…"

Shizuru stopped her eyebrows from twitching upwards upon the mispronounced word. Did Haruka mean to say waiting? No doubt the correction would just create a vehement denial and as fun as usually would be for the teasing Kaichou, she didn't feel in the mood. Yes, that was correct – Shizuru Fujino could not bring herself to tease. After that surprising thought, Shizuru shooed Haruka out of the room with a plastered fake smile, and Haruka took it as real, not because she was stupid, but because Shizuru was the master at faking smiles.

The words that echoed in her mind as Haruka left was _too bad no one is waiting for me…_ She knew it was selfish of her, she knew it was vain of her, but she couldn't help but be jealous. Yukino was Haruka's everything, dare she say "most important person"? but either way, Haruka had that – and she didn't. Her most important person did not return her affections, in fact, with how much the biker avoided her, she probably didn't even return her friendship.

Now that the carnival was over, that the first district was…over…Natsuki had zero to no reason to see her, especially after the mess with the kiss. The kiss that she couldn't help but steal, and the kiss that was singlehandedly the reason for their lack of acquaintance, much less their friendship. With a small sigh Shizuru forced her mind off her little, well, not so little anymore, puppy, and back to the task at hand. Mental daydreams of a place where Natsuki loved her would never happen, but the papers being due would.

Shizuru returned to her paperwork, throwing herself into it as she had done many times recently, and so preoccupied was she that she didn't see her emerald eyed goddess poke her head in through the doorway, like a little puppy nosing around. If she had seen it she would have found her teasing sparkle again, and verbalized the similarities between her Natsuki's actions, and a puppy, but no such luck.

The biker finally caught Shizuru's attention when she scooted onto the desk shuffling some of Shizuru's finished paperwork out of her way. In fact, for one golden second, Shizuru was utterly surprised, and verbalized it with a short scream –a once in a lifetime moment was beheld by Natsuki.

"Natsuki!" Shizuru cringed a little inside as she heard herself screech the biker's name, it was very unlike her, and judging by the wide eyed look Natsuki gave her, would finally give the little pup the opportunity to tease the ruby eyed Kaichou back. Shizuru resolved to stop that from happening by teasing her before she got teased; a preemptive strike if you will.

"Ara, Natsuki, was all your research just an excuse, what are you doing here?" No words had ever been spoken that Shizuru wished true as much as those. Natsuki's visit was a wonderful surprise, but the brunette knew better than to get her hopes up, it would only crush her in the end.

The effect she observed on Natsuki was immediate and gratifying though, so she was able to push her despondent thoughts away. Natsuki's face turned a most lovely, in Shizuru's opinion, shade of purple as she gaped for a few seconds, unable to even formulate a grunt in reply. Yes Natsuki was always flustered at such comments, but Shizuru didn't think it was extreme enough to provoke such an apoplexic response. Could it be she had accidentally struck truth?

No, Shizuru had to tear her mind away from such thoughts; it would only make her break more in the end. She had to stop letting herself hope – that was it. Simple. Stop hoping.

"I'm here out of habit." Natsuki's gruff embarrassed words pulled Shizuru to the present once more, and amusingly enough, the word "miffed" came to the Kaichou's mind. That was a perfect word to describe Natsuki at the moment – miffed. Shizuru, feeling merciful, kept that label to herself for now, she'd inform her little pup later, but for now she had enough teasing.

"And anyways, why are you here still? I thought you'd come out so I could give you a lift a while ago. I figured you wouldn't have as much to do now." Natsuki added her color lightening to its normal color to Shizuru's disappointment. Natsuki swung her legs a little as she spoke and soon enough Shizuru was once more distracted from the ebony haired girl's words.

Her gaze was firmly, but surreptitiously, glued to the patch of bare skin between the socks of the academy uniform, and the hem of the skirt. Shizuru knew she was treading in dangerous waters; it was just like the stolen kiss. She could feel her desire becoming almost too overpowering and Shizuru nearly closed her eyes to fight her internal battle. The only thing stopping her was the need to remain calm and outwardly normal for her Natsuki, a way to do that was to focus on the question.

"Just because I made time for my Natsuki does not mean that I had nothing to do." At Natsuki's stunned look Shizuru let out a delicate laugh, able now to pull her attention back on more suitable places. "I always just took the paperwork home and stayed to help you…"

"Oh," Once again Shizuru was graced with Natsuki's blush this time incited by embarrassed ignorance and guilt. Natsuki never did realize how much out of the way Shizuru went for, for example becoming president at all.

"Oh? Just oh?" Shizuru teasingly said putting on a fake pout and hurt expression, "no 'Oh Shizuru, you do so much, I love you…'"The teasing was a good old fallback, which more often than she'd ever like to admit, was used as an outlet for her raging desire. Under the guise of teasing she said more with a freer tongue, and under that guise, Natsuki let her get away with it.

"W-well, I d-didn't know, but I d-don't- uh, not that I'm, I'm not g-grateful, it's just that, I'm not, I mean I d-don't-" Natsuki knew her face, heck her whole body, was turning from a shade of pink, to a shade of apoplectic purple. Actually it was such a shade of purple that Shizuru thought Natsuki was somehow asphyxiating herself just by sheer will alone.And while Shizuru knew that laughing would only make the color and Natsuki's desperate spluttering worse, she the Queen of Restraint (except in rare extenuous circumstances such as these), could _not_ hold in her laughter. Natsuki was just too kawaii! Sinking forward onto her arm on the table Shizuru felt near to collapse at Natsuki's marvelous performance. Really, teasing could not provoke a better reaction than the one provided by one extremely embarrassed biker - an embarrassed biker that looked like they were trying to become one with the floor…

However, Natsuki would be pleased to know she got her revenge, without ever really trying. Shizuru's collapsing laughter abruptly cut off as she realized exactly how close to Natsuki's bare thigh she was. Yes, the selfsame thigh that captured Shizuru's covert gaze was now inches from her mouth, and this time it was desire not laughter that bubbled up in her.

Sitting up suddenly Shizuru made for the door leaving a confused and flustered Natsuki behind in her wake. The brunette paused at the door and sent her lilting Kyoto-ben voice over her shoulder towards the stunned Natsuki.

"Ara, ara, I think Natsuki has had enough, shall we leave?"


	2. Tribulation number 1

Natsuki just blinked for a second utterly confused at what had just occurred; one second she was being laughed at, then one second Shizuru was leaving, and the weirdest part was that she was unhappy at the way the events took a turn. Shouldn't she be glad Shizuru gave up on the teasing? Shouldn't she be ecstatic that Shizuru was giving her a break? Yes, she should, but instead she was upset. Upset because suddenly Shizuru was the one retreating, upset because Shizuru was the one pulling away. What on earth had caused the retreat anyways? 

Realizing that Shizuru was now regarding her with curious red eyes from the doorway Natsuki scrambled for a response trying not to fall back into her thoughts. 

"Uh, sure…" Okay, so that wasn't the most articulate of responses, but she had done much worse in the past – like incoherent noises, noncommittal grunts and etc – this time it was actual words coming out of her mouth. As she walked outside to her bike with Shizuru patiently by her side Natsuki succumbed to the lure of her thoughts and lapsed into silence, not noticing the slightly worried look on her companions face. Natsuki had never been the most talkative of girls, but utter silence wasn't usual with her either, she usually at least attempted small talk with Shizuru.

Just as Natsuki felt the touch of air on her cheeks walking into the open air, the answer hit her in the face. She had been retracing the happenings in her mind the whole way, and the biker finally pinpointed the moment Shizuru began to act a little oddly. The first time she noticed it was when the Kaichou was desperately trying to look at something without looking directly at it, Natsuki ignored it thinking it was related to paperwork at first, but combined with her second discovery it was intriguing. Her second discovery was Shizuru's second bout with weirdness occurred just as she was laughing; again, it looked as if she was startled by what she saw, so the question now became what she was looking at.

"I've got it!" and as she walked outside Natsuki further worried her best friend by shouting triumphantly, in fact nearly making the graceful student council president jump from the suddenness, a true feat indeed. 

"Ara? What is it that Natsuki has gotten?" Shizuru questioned making the ebony-haired girl realize the shout in her brain had been a tad bit more vocal than she wanted it to be, and again Natsuki was reduced to her usual state during a need for a comeback – incoherent noises and noncommittal grunts.

"I uh, it's, hmm, yeah, hmm." The good thing about her habit of incoherent answers was that it saved her from blurting out what she indeed had gotten. She in fact, had she not had a habit of only making random noises, probably would have blurted out '_you were staring up my skirt!'_ and promptly die of embarrassment. 

Again, Natsuki found herself on the receiving end of another thoughtful slightly worried look from her friend, her very best friend, her closest, most precious person…who was looking up her skirt in two separate occasions…Very quickly Natsuki descended into another warpspeed twisting tangent standing almost listlessly by her bike as Shizuru's worry began to mount.

"Ara? Natsuki? Are you alright? Should you not drive?" The words barely registered to Natsuki since she was so busy with her thoughts, but nanoseconds later Natsuki snapped out of her wandering consciousness with another startling revelation - a revelation that was making a slight flush creep up her face.

"Sorry," she began grabbing her helmet and passing the other to Shizuru as she brought her blushing gaze up to Shizuru's ruby stare, "I'm okay, I just realized something stupid…really, I'm fine." At Natsuki's vehement explanation Shizuru's worry faded from what the biker could tell from her inspection, but a little curiosity remained. Thankfully as Natsuki mounted her bike, Shizuru picked up on her complete resistance to broach the topic and let it go…for now. There was a bit of promise in Shizuru's eyes, and Natsuki was apprehensive about the upcoming questioning she was sure she'd receive shortly.

How do you explain that for some reason, the person you have been rebuffing for the better part of high school has been looking up your skirt, you know they are and…you don't mind? That isn't exactly normal conversation, in fact it's not even the fact it's not normal conversation that bothers her; it's that it is _personal_. 

Sighing Natsuki shoved all active thoughts out of her mind, she needed to drive, and the last thing she wanted was to get into an accident because she wasn't paying attention; she'd never forgive herself, especially if Shizuru got hurt. She'd kill anyone who'd hurt Shizuru, including herself. When Shizuru situated herself on the bike, climbing on as delicately and gracefully as usual, Natsuki took off, slightly surprising Shizuru with the speed at which she went. Natsuki was always careful to not really drive fast with Shizuru onboard, but this time, her preoccupation did strike that thought from her.

It was only when Shizuru's grip tightened infinitesimally around her waist did she realize how fast she was actually going. It was much slower than when she herself was trying to clear her head, perhaps her subconscious had not forgotten Shizuru, but faster than Shizuru had probably ever gone. What was surprising was that except for a small tightening of grip, Shizuru was utterly comfortable with the acceleration.

"Is this okay?" Natsuki yelled belatedly trying to confirm Shizuru was indeed okay and not pretending to be for sake of her mask. "It's perfect," was not a response she was expecting, but it made her heart lighter. Shizuru's voice was filled with a quiet by noticeable joy, and Natsuki could tell instinctively that somehow, Shizuru's formal social mask was gone; if only she could see through the helmet and know what the secret inner Shizuru looked like. 

After Shizuru's answer Natsuki felt like her own enthusiasm was multiplying, bouncing from Shizuru to her to Shizuru in an unending loop. The biker could feel the same being replicated with Shizuru; the hands around her waist held looser, but firmer. Almost as if all fear was gone, and all that remained was an electric need. A need for speed; a need for closeness. Again the same feeling as before bubbled up in her. 

When she had figured out Shizuru's destination for her eyes, she had initially been elated to figure out the answer, but that elatedness soon transformed into embarrassment. Embarrassment from her 

instant acceptance and…happiness? She had been happy that Shizuru's eyes lingered up her thigh and under her skirt, she had felt a well of desire at the idea Shizuru wanted her, and she had been embarrassed by the fact she liked the attention. Never before had she liked the attention she received by anyone – male or female – but Shizuru wasn't anyone. She was her most precious person…


End file.
